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Local News
The Sandspit airport may lose its refuelling service for planes and helicopters after Dec. 31, raising concerns about the impact on local air traffic, particularly medevacs. After years of declining fuel sales and a money-losing drought at
Nov 7, 2024
Local News
Old Massett Village Council is planning a second life for a former elementary school in Masset. Designed for 390 students when it opened in 1970, the former Tahayghen Elementary School was closed in June in favour of a combined kindergarten
Nov 7, 2024
Local News
More islanders can buy baking, hot food, preserves and other treats at local farmers markets this year. Thanks to a nearly $20,000 grant for food-systems transformation, local students, seniors, and people in need can pick up $10 coupons fo
Nov 7, 2024
Local News
For a week, watching the B.C. election count was like staring at Balance Rock — it wouldn't tip left or right. While it's now clear David Eby and the BC NDP will stay in government, the contest between the NDP and surging Conservatives was
Nov 7, 2024
Features
Atticus Burton-Adams is one high-flying, highly musical cowboy. Any day of the week, Atticus might be strolling down Main Street wearing a red kerchief, a Clint Eastwood-style poncho, and a big black cowboy hat. The Masset teen also plays a
Nov 7, 2024
Business Profiles
Picking a perfectly ripe thimbleberry takes focus. Squeeze it, and it turns to jam. Pinch it quick with two fingers instead of nimbly with three, and you’re likely to send the delicate red berry cap flying, and watch sadly as it slowly sail
Nov 7, 2024
Events
After waiting out stormwinds for a day, all went smoothly on Sunday, Oct. 13 when a Skedans pole was raised at the Haida village site of G̱aa Kyaals, near Dead Tree Point. Chief Gidansda, Guujaaw, had the pole carved by his sons Gwaai and J
Oct 24, 2024
Local News
Tamara Davidson is the newly elected MLA for North Coast-Haida Gwaii. But as of press time Monday, the province-wide result of the Oct. 19 election was so close that it remains unclear whether Davidson's New Democrat party will govern or le
Oct 24, 2024
Local News
Rolling through Skidegate Heights in a brand-new recycling truck last Wednesday, Filene Mussell held up a pizza-sauce bottle without a speck of food inside. It was day two of Skidegate's pickup recycling service — a first for Haida Gwaii —
Oct 24, 2024
Local News
Kids crawled under Slide Tunnel Mountain and wheeled toy cars with sock feet at the first Kindergym in Daajing Giids last week. With brightly coloured play structures funded by a Northern Health IMAGINE grant, including a padded pen handy f
Oct 24, 2024
Opinions
Many years ago, a friend of mine wrote an open letter addressed to the desk vandals at the Chicago Public Library. It was 2003, the dawn of time online, and the humour website McSweeney's ran a regular series of open letters addressed to Pe
Oct 24, 2024
Features
New documentary revisits 1985 protest on Lyell Island, Athlii Gwaii One dark morning in November 1985, a helicopter chops the air at Lyell Island. Boots grind in the muddy logging road as people approach. A year before, a landslide loosed b
Oct 24, 2024
Features
Any Haida Gwaii dogs celebrating Thanksgiving last weekend must have raised a paw to thank Richard Decembrini and Darleen Wulff. The Daajing Giids couple already had two dogs and three cats at home when, in late September, the Gwaii Animal
Oct 24, 2024
Local News
Sebastian Berg was responding to a mock oil spill off Vancouver Island when he heard a pair of Coast Guard workers were stuck on a beach without lunch. Even in a real oil spill, people need to eat. On any other day, the Coast Guard would ha
Oct 24, 2024
Sports
Local runner Angela Olsen is set to become the first Totem to Totem marathoner to go on and run the Boston Marathon. Olsen won the women’s silver at the Totem to Totem in July. The annual marathon starts and ends by the towering totems in f
Oct 24, 2024
Local News
A research buoy that gathers data on wind, wave, and tidal power is anchored about 10 km north of North Beach. Mariners were notified last month to watch out for the bright yellow buoy, which is six metres long. It has a solar panel, wind m
Oct 24, 2024
Local News
Hundreds gathered in Skidegate on Saturday to celebrate the Council of the Haida Nation's first 50 years. Before talking about how Haida title was recognized by the B.C. government this spring, or about the several CHN-led agreements recent
Oct 10, 2024
Local News
A false claim about vaccines by local BC Conservative candidate Chris Sankey surfaced in the first leaders' debate of the Oct. 19 B.C. election. While debating health care policy on CKNW radio last week, BC NDP Leader David Eby handed BC Co
Oct 10, 2024
Local News
A driver is lucky to be unhurt after his car slid off Highway 16 during a heavy rainstorm and fell wheels-down onto some shoreline rocks in Skidegate. At around 5 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26, a man was driving on Highway 16 past Jags coffee
Oct 10, 2024
Features
On the closing track of his debut album, Jordan Stewart-Burton raps about how Haida Gwaii sounds. “Listen,” he starts, “This is how Sah’laana talks.” “The waves and rocks, the rain when it drops, the wind when it wails, the inlets and whale
Oct 10, 2024
Local News
Construction crews are starting to frame the new Masset library branch and Xaad Kil language lab at the north end of Main Street. The 3,800-square foot building is expected to be substantially done by February. If all goes according to plan
Oct 10, 2024
Events
Pixie-pop singer Jessica Mai and a jumble of talented open-mic players kicked off the first Haida Gwaii Coffeehouse of the year on Sept. 27. The pass-the-hat music series is hosted by volunteers in the romantically-lit Daajing Giids Communi
Oct 10, 2024
Events
Bright orange shirts filled the Masset community hall for National Truth and Reconciliation Day on Monday, Sept. 30. A mix of young families and elders, including several residential-school survivors, filled every seat in the Howard Phillip
Oct 10, 2024
Sports
Tucked behind the rifle range run by the Port Clements Rod and Gun Club is a second range fewer people see. Made for trap shooting, it has five open-air shooting stations laid out in a crescent shape. When the first shooter yells “pull!” so
Oct 10, 2024
Features
New SD50 superintendent plans for core skills, life outcomes When Lisa Bernoties started her first job as a school superintendent, she gathered a team to look at student data no one was seeing. The team looked well beyond grad rates. What c
Oct 10, 2024
Local News
The Council of the Haida Nation and Hereditary Chiefs Council say they do not support building a gold mine near Yaagun G̱andlaay, the Yakoun River. "The majority of Haida citizens and other Island residents have opposed this project since i
Sep 26, 2024
Local News
Gumboots weren't the only bright idea on the soggy Masset airfield this Sunday. Tll Yahda Energy is weeks away from switching on a 2-megawatt array of solar panels that the Haida-owned renewable energy company built on the open ground by th
Sep 26, 2024
Local News
Haida Gwaii's fibre-optic mainline had a very unlucky break on Friday the 13th. Around noon on Sept. 13, a BC Hydro crew installing a pole south of Masset accidentally drilled an auger through the fibre-optic cable buried beside Highway 16.
Sep 26, 2024
Local News
What is big, red and totally pumped for Port Clements? A brand-new fire truck. Designed to deliver a lot of water to places without fire hydrants, the new fire truck also has a built-in pump. “It’s a tanker and a pumper,” says Mike Van Herd
Sep 26, 2024
Local News
A report on the 2022 capsizing of an ecotourism boat in Gwaii Haanas says more is needed to ensure the safety of small commercial vessels. No one was hurt when after turning broadside to the wind in heavy waves, the 42-foot Island Bay start
Sep 26, 2024
Events
How does Haida Gwaii look in 2074? That question gave a theme to the Swiilawiid Sustainability Society’s third renewable energy symposium, hosted at the Kwiiyaans Hall in G̱aw Tlagée last weekend. But what stole the show were several clean-
Sep 26, 2024
Local News
Tamara Davidson, Laanas, says she is running for North Coast-Haida Gwaii MLA because she believes in putting people first. Speaking last week from a newly opened Prince Rupert campaign office that will soon be full of NDP-orange posters and
Sep 26, 2024
Opinions
A wise man once said that if you annoy people and do stupid things on Haida Gwaii, life becomes very painful for you here. We all know where everyone lives, he said, and we know where each other’s wives and husbands work and live. And maybe
Sep 26, 2024
Local News
Chris Sankey says he is running to be the next North Coast-Haida Gwaii MLA for his children and their children for the next seven generations. A former Lax Kw’alaams band councillor and founder of a consulting firm that aligns Indigenous le
Sep 26, 2024
Uncategorized
On a roll-ment More students are enrolled in the new Daaxiigan Sk’adaa Née K-12 school than the district expected this year. The district was expecting 85 students in the elementary grades at the new K-12 school in Masset, but 103 students
Sep 26, 2024
Local News
A mining company and a former B.C. premier say a gold mine worth $3.5 billion could be built near the Yakoun River with Haida ownership and no harm to the watershed. JDS Mining is the latest in a series of companies to own claims to a gold
Sep 12, 2024
Local News
Tlaga G̱awtlaas, New Town, will soon be home to a new childcare centre and many more houses nearby. Designed like a Haida longhouse, the licensed childcare centre will have room for up to 49 children and be staffed by early childhood educat
Sep 12, 2024
Sports
Port Clements' golf course has a mud bog for a water trap. It's also got soccer nets on the fairway, a grease pole on hole two, and all the greens get weed-whacked, not mowed. A hand-drawn course map calls it "Rustic, but free." Linda Berst
Sep 12, 2024
Events
It’s a family-fun event, but that doesn’t stop some people training weeks before Agate Man. About 60 people swam, cycled, and ran in this year’s mini-triathlon from Pure Lake to the Masset firehall on Saturday. Alissa MacMullin, coordinator
Sep 12, 2024
Business Profiles
Masset Cycles offers tune-ups, repairs and bike sales A funny thing happened when Daniel Kolpatzik bought his first bicycle in Canada. People kept asking “Are you a cyclist?” as if buying a bike was a political act. “I was born and raised i
Sep 12, 2024
Uncategorized
Masset artist Maryanne Wettlaufer stepped out to her backyard studio one grey morning last week when she saw the gifted sunflowers on the deck were starting to fade. Dan Peebles, co-owner of The Ground coffee shop in Masset, starts several
Sep 12, 2024
Local News
Naikoon Contracting will not build a boardwalk on the Masset pier or a timber-frame pavilion in the park north of Main Street. The pier boardwalk instead will be built by Broadwater Industries, a Prince Rupert-based company specializing in
Sep 12, 2024
Business Profiles
After a bit of slack, things are flowing again for a working tidal-power project on Haida Gwaii. Engineers are nearly halfway through a $1.5-million design study needed to get the Kamdis Tidal Demonstration Project ready to build. Driven by
Aug 29, 2024
Local News
Village tangles with welfare concerns; owner says horse is misunderstood Daajing Giids is a one-horse town but it might not stay so. In early June, owner Tara Rea began keeping a chocolate-coloured Rocky Mountain Horse named Tango in a smal
Aug 29, 2024
Features
Before it was a problem boat with fuel leaks and popped planks, the Western Star was the oldest working fishing boat in B.C. Launched in the winter of 1912, the same year the Titanic sank, it was originally called the Chief Zibassa. Togethe
Aug 29, 2024
Local News
Two more derelict boats have been towed from the docks at Masset Harbour. After seeing signs that either boat could sink any day, the Haida Nation and Canadian Coast Guard led a joint response to tow the 87-foot Western Star and 40-foot Emi
Aug 29, 2024
Events
Hundreds of people and a few jumping salmon witnessed the launch on Saturday of Tluuwee Kwiiyaas: the Beloved Canoe. Carved from a single red cedar and steamed the traditional way, the Haida oceangoing canoe is a monumental 51 feet long. It
Aug 29, 2024
Events
The Edge of the World Music Festival had a lot to celebrate this year: a 25th anniversary, record ticket sales, and the return of Haida Soul legend Chini Har. (All photos by Andrew Hudson) Weed Xaadee open the festival. Wishbone plays a tun
Aug 15, 2024
Local News
Many hands built it and many more will make things inside. Ts’úu HlG̱anggulaa Née, Cedar Working House, is a new woodworking shop built on the grounds of the Tluu Xaada Naay longhouse and canoe shed in Old Massett. A crowd of apprentice car
Aug 15, 2024
Local News
Young trout and salmon in T’am Gandlaay will have a better chance of surviving drought thanks to work done at the creek last weekend. T’am Gandlaay is the creek people see when they walk up the Spirit Lake hiking trail. It runs down from Sp
Aug 15, 2024
Local News
Masset got its first wildfire danger sign in May and there are plans to put a second one along Tow Hill Road toward Agate Beach. Installed near the Masset visitor information centre, the sign shows whether the area has a low, moderate, high
Aug 15, 2024
Local News
Plans to build a fuel depot in downtown Masset will not be reviewed by B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO). The fuel depot will be owned and operated by North Arm Transportation on the site of a derelict fish-packing plant along th
Aug 15, 2024
Uncategorized
Writer Aaron Williams opens his latest book back when he was an 18-year-old kid about to join his Dad logging at Eden Lake. Williams grew up in Prince Rupert with ties to Haida Gwaii. As a teen, he worked summers at his grandmother's small
Aug 15, 2024
Features
SG̱ang Gwaay Llnagaay looked devastated five years ago after a hurricane-strength storm uprooted more than 100 trees there. The Haida village site on SG̱ang Gwaay, or Wailing Island, had not seen such a storm in ages, even though the remote
Aug 6, 2024
Sports
Runners woke to lifting clouds and a perfect 15C morning for this year’s Totem to Totem race. Katerina Birklein-Lagassé of Montreal made good on it, winning the women’s marathon with a dazzling time of 3:29:42 — fast enough to qualify her f
Aug 3, 2024
Local News
Skidegate’s new Xaayda Naay House opened for a sneak preview during Skidegate Days on Saturday, July 20. From a balcony on the new 24-unit apartment building, people on the tour could hear car horns cheering on Totem to Totem marathoners ru
Aug 2, 2024
Local News
Fire destroyed a pickup truck outside the Northern Haida Gwaii Hospital last Thursday afternoon. No one was injured in the July 25 fire, which sent up metres-high flames and a cloud of thick dark smoke. The cause is unknown. The people in t
Aug 1, 2024
Local News
A new compost program in Old Massett is about to make the earthworms jealous and greatly cut down on the amount of garbage going to landfill. In a start-up phase this fall, capital works staff with Old Massett Village Council (OMVC) will co
Aug 1, 2024
Business Profiles
B.C.’s expanded heat-pump rebate is hot stuff for Haida Gwaii. Rebates of up to $19,000 are now available to Haida Gwaiians who switch to a heat-pump for primary home heating. Amounts vary depending on household income and how many people l
Jul 30, 2024
Local News
Before food, dance and speeches, one final step at a July 5 feast in Old Massett gave force to the B.C. law recognizing Haida title. Invited to take the floor in the packed Kwiiyaans Hall, Murray Rankin, B.C.’s minister of Indigenous relati
Jul 29, 2024
Uncategorized
At the launch of a runway-style exhibit showcasing her 40-year career in Haida art and high fashion, the crowd learned a Dorothy Grant dress can get you swept off your feet. Kwiaahwah Jones, Dorothy Grant's long-time assistant, told the sto
Jul 20, 2024
Uncategorized
How is it we humans can live on Earth, such a generous garden, and be so blissfully unaware where we are? Michael Nicoll Yaghulanaas floated that question and one more at a July 9 talk about his newly finished series of paintings, the Daalk
Jul 20, 2024
Sports
A pair of plucky Haida Gwaii pickleballers won gold at the first-ever Terrace Pickleball Classic. Regina Williams and Christina Lord took home a women's doubles title after winning a close, 19-game match against a tough Terrace duo in the f
Jul 20, 2024
Opinions
With a little luck and know-how, you can do a lot with a shoelace. In a pinch, a shoelace can help you start a fire, tie a tourniquet, even climb a tree. Thanks to our growing list of subscribers, donors and advertisers, the Haida Gwaii New
Jul 18, 2024
Uncategorized
Dancers hopped like frogs, fell like leaves, leapt into star shapes and swept by in waves at the Masset Playhouse last month. Watched by family and friends who sat on stage so the dancers could have the whole run of the Playhouse floor, the
Jul 18, 2024
Local News
Sphenia Jones was not alone when she stood up in Sarah’s Longhouse this spring to talk about what she survived at residential school. Jones is seeking a class-action lawsuit against a priest, his religious order, and his archdiocese after t
Jul 18, 2024
Events
“Have fun, rain is coming!” a driver shouted as they honked and drove by everyone lining up on Living By the Sea-themed floats for the Haida Gwaii Hospital Day parade in Daajing Giids on Saturday, June 22. But the rain was just a spritz and
Jul 10, 2024
Local News
Everyone hushed in the Tahayghen Elementary gym when boys in Haida regalia entered shaking rattles to start the school’s closing ceremony. Next came all the Tahayghen students, joined by fellow students from Chief Matthews School, drumming,
Jul 5, 2024
Local News
Recognition of Haida aboriginal title under B.C. law will take effect on Friday, July 5. The provincial law that recognizes Haida Nation title, the Haida Nation Recognition Amendment Act, passed by a 53-25 vote in the B.C. legislature in Ap
Jul 4, 2024
Business Profiles
Light rain and the sound of kids singing the Happy Song in Haida filled the air when a new welcome sign was unveiled June 21 at the Hiellen Village Longhouses. A new sign is one of several changes people will soon see when they drive past t
Jul 4, 2024
Local News
Tamara Davidson, Laanas, will be the BC NDP candidate for North Coast-Haida Gwaii for the next provincial election on Oct. 19. Davidson was elected by members of the local BC NDP riding association after a short campaign on Saturday, June 2
Jul 4, 2024
Business Profiles
When Ronald Diaz saw how boxers train in Thailand, the culture shock hit him after the first morning session. All the adult boxers cleared the gym floor, and in came the kids. At just eight or nine years old, they could already spar with kn
Jun 21, 2024
Local News
Tamara Davidson, Laanas, is campaigning to be the next BC NDP candidate for North Coast-Haida Gwaii. If she wins the party nomination, Davidson will be a leading contender for North Coast-Haida Gwaii MLA in the upcoming provincial election
Jun 21, 2024
Features
Anyone wondering who is drilling all those neatly rounded holes into Haida Gwaii clamshells got the answer on a World Ocean Day beach walk at the Haida Heritage Centre. It's the moon snails. It takes two hands to hold a full-grown moon snai
Jun 20, 2024
Local News
The Village of Masset broke ground on not one but two construction projects on May 31, and both will keep people out of the rain. On the pier at the south end of Main Street, the village is building a pedestrian-only boardwalk that parallel
Jun 12, 2024
Features
Riley Dorman already knows the river he will return to. At 18, and about to graduate from GidGalang Ḵ̱uuyas Naay Secondary, Dorman has just won a full scholarship to Simon Fraser University (SFU). Awarded to one Haida Gwaii high school grad
Jun 6, 2024
Local News
After supportive votes by the Haida people and by the B.C. legislature, and without a treaty or a court ruling, the B.C. government has formally recognized that the Haida Nation holds Aboriginal title to all of Haida Gwaii. The agreement th
Jun 6, 2024
Local News
Today, it's a grassy lot on Hippie Hill with fluffy dandelions and a pair of "No Dumping" signs. But someday soon, the lot at 609 Second Avenue in Daajing Giids will be home to Yew Wood Place — a 17-unit apartment building where most tenant
Jun 2, 2024
Local News
Masset potholes are getting nervous. Starting this June to September and continuing June to September next year, the Village of Masset will repave 38 streets — nearly every street in town. Masset councillors voted to award the $8.1-million
Jun 2, 2024
Local News
A private flight that took off from Masset last June ended in a deadly crash off Vancouver Island when the floatplane pilot was trying to circle around for a second landing attempt. The crash killed the pilot and one passenger, while anothe
Jun 2, 2024
Business Profiles
Perched above a forest of sparkling liquor bottles in Daajing Giids' newest pub is a dark blue bird with a spiky black crest. The bird is a Steller's Jay, namesake of the new Steller's Jay Community Pub that co-owners Matt Lunner and Joshua
Jun 2, 2024
Local News
A man who was seriously injured after taking a fall at a remote cabin along East Beach is expected to fully recover after volunteers helped him into a BC Ambulance helicopter on Saturday, May 18. The man, a former Masset resident, thanked t
May 21, 2024
Uncategorized
Auroras light up islands' skies
May 21, 2024
Events
Teachers and parent volunteers waded into the Tlell River on May 19 to let loose 1,200 rubber ducks in a fundraising race for Mr. Wahl's Grade 6/7 Sk’aadgaa Naay Elementary class. A strong breeze blew the ducks against the riverbank, but st
May 21, 2024